How it works

Taking photos from the camera roll or snapping a new image on the spot, enter ‘Mask’ mode and you can draw a vague outline around the object you want to receive the 3D effect.

You can also zoom in to touch-up any parts that have been missed.

Then you can add filters, crop or adjust the brightness, contrast and saturation, and save and share it. Though we must add, an option to share by email would be nice – it seems it’s restricted to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr for now.

The interesting part here, however, is that by tilting the screen, you can bring the photos to life in 3D, and look over, under & around the object. These images then animate automatically when shared online.

We first covered Tadaa way back in 2011, when we noted that it builds on Instagram’s template with more Twitter-like features for social photographers. Though Instagram has proven to be the poster boy of filter-based photo apps, with around 3 million downloads to date Tadaa has carved a sizable niche for itself in what has become a saturated space, and with arguably a more sophisticated offering than some of its peers.

The only thing I’d say here is that launching a separate, standalone app for a single effect doesn’t make a lot of sense – for me it would seem more sensible to introduce it to the existing Tadaa app, enabling it via an in-app purchase.

Tadaa 3D is available to download from the App Store now, costing $3.99. Though the first 30 readers to tweet a request to Tadaa on Twitter mentioning ‘TNW’, will get a promo code to download it for free.

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